I have contributed a lot of content since 2005 under several different user names. A lot of that content required significant time for me to locate links, photos, etc to be able to provide accurate answers to a question or, as many of my posts attempt, to correct an inaccurate answer that seems to be getting a lot of traction in the post.
The content that I post is mine, the aggregation platform is theirs. I post with the understanding that it becomes as public as the sub allows and that I have the ability to edit as I feel appropriate.
Reddit is a platform for aggregating news and information on a huge variety of subjects but the content belongs to the users. Reddit felt like they needed to monetize things and the only thing they have that has any value is the user content and user ID info. I have never provided any ID info so they are stuck with an IP address for me. I'm okay with that.
They have had ample opportunity to crawl all of my posts over the years, archive them as they see fit, and repost them later as long as I get acknowledged as the OP. They have backups. Many others have used publicly available tools to crawl the site and index user content. It is safe to say that nothing that I have ever posted has disappeared. It is available in someone's archive somewhere. I'm okay with that because I can't change that now.
When I post today, I monitor the thread activity and when it dies I edit my post unless it fits the criteria that I honor - the post references a situation where someone needed information about a common issue with a vehicle or other product that I have a lot of experience with. For example if someone just bought a 15 year old vehicle and suddenly they encounter an issue that is well-known to everyone else who has ever owned that model then I post a clear answer with photos if needed to help them solve the problem. People like this tend to be unable to afford newer vehicles and problems like this can be expensive to fix if they go to a shop when they are really simple to fix with ordinary tools. I give a description of the process to repair it so they can get on their way and not have their "new-to-me" car break down and cost them a job. Most of my posts are reposts of content posted several times over the years such that I just grab the text from my local folder and the associated photos and let if fly again.
This is necessary on reddit because their search function is intentionally broken so that old useful posts can be hard to find. This encourages people to make new posts solving old problems and drives traffic to reddit. It's a dick move on reddit's part but I accepted that years ago.
The absence of permalinks on many subs also fuels this repost bullshit. Few subs have permalinks to popular questions or FAQs on the sub, therefore you see a lot of repetition in subject matter of the posts. Reddit subs are less of an information site than they are an activity site. Reddit needs a certain amount of traffic on a sub for it to be a useful place to post so search is crippled, permalinks are largely absent, etc.
The content I post on reddit is mine. I will do with it as I please. If you wanna see everything I have ever posted in its original form you need to use one of those crawler tools before I edit.
I have been part of their free labor since late 2005. Now they want to farm out my content with no compensation to me. They would have nothing of value without the content that users like myself freely provided.
I donated my content without which they would never have gained any traction online.
>If you could do the same on HN would you? How is your action not petty and trolling?
I also edit comments on HN if the edit is appropriate and I remove comments if the thread is dead when I comment so that the comment adds nothing to the discussion.
>No matter what excuse you make, you’re still being part of the problem.
These words that I spent my time to type should never be construed as an excuse. They are an explanation. There's a difference. As to whether I am part of the problem or part of the solution or just a small part of something else, that is always open to an individual's interpretation based on and biased by their own personal experiences.
>And exactly how was Reddit suppose to be an ongoing concern without monetization?
This has never been my problem. It is a problem that they should have had the foresight to solve before they launched.
It is not my part of their business to propose solutions to their self-inflicted problems of monetization.
I don't need to be paid for my content. I post on HN and reddit and several other forums as a way to help others solve problems when they own or use something that I am familiar with.
Like I said above, I understand that some of my content provides value when I post. I also understand that joining and posting to forums and sites is a personal choice that is totally optional. No one asked me to post. No one forced me to post. It is always my decision.
That is how it should be.
I also understand that the part of my content that has value is always content that I could choose to post to a personal blog or other personal website with all the tools to help me monetize traffic. I have made the choice in my own life to avoid that path since the chances of it gaining enough traction to be useful to others is less with a blog or youtube channel and I don't need that level of friction in my life.
EDIT: As for the part about why I comment and potentially "add value" - sites like HN and reddit and the other topic-specific forums that I post on add value to my life by providing information that I need so I post comments in an attempt to add some value on their end when I see the need. Value to you or any other user is always subjective.
AFAIK HN doesn't have similar VPN access limits in place. Nor is HN restricting third party API access [1] or selling user content [2] for model training purposes.
I was addressing your HN comparison. If HN starts adopting similar practices then it'll be fair for the person you were replying to also take a similar stance. Have a "free" public forum where users contribute content was the model Reddit had been using for years. Once they started changing the model, why shouldn't users start questioning their own role in the now outdated arrangement?
>Sounds like they are proposing reddit shouldn't make money through the content, and die if that is the only path.
I think if you did a deep dive on reddit that covered everything you would see that they have struggled with this issue since they launched. It's really not my problem to solve. I add content. Some of that content has value.
They have lots of gifted supporters in the Y-Combinator family who could think of lots of ways to monetize things and I don't worry about how they end up doing it until it reaches the point where it is not possible to trust that you are interacting with a thread posted by a live person or one that is a repost from a bot farm.
Reddit is over-run with bots now and the average user has no way to know which users are live humans versus bots used to drive traffic. I've always been a "don't piss down my neck and tell me it's raining" type of person. Credibility is key. Reddit needs a way for ordinary users who would like to contribute content - free or paid, I don't care - to recognize bots and other artificial traffic like paid adverts or sponsored posts. Camouflaging users wastes my time when I need to look at post history to decide whether they are real or just karma farming.
In the end I agree with the part about dying if this is the only path for reddit. All good things come to an end. That's why corporations can live forever.
Everyone who used the site and moderated it was providing free labor. Do you not remember the moderation protests against the administration of the site?
Now that those mods have left, the value of Reddit has too.
I have contributed a lot of content since 2005 under several different user names. A lot of that content required significant time for me to locate links, photos, etc to be able to provide accurate answers to a question or, as many of my posts attempt, to correct an inaccurate answer that seems to be getting a lot of traction in the post.
The content that I post is mine, the aggregation platform is theirs. I post with the understanding that it becomes as public as the sub allows and that I have the ability to edit as I feel appropriate.
Reddit is a platform for aggregating news and information on a huge variety of subjects but the content belongs to the users. Reddit felt like they needed to monetize things and the only thing they have that has any value is the user content and user ID info. I have never provided any ID info so they are stuck with an IP address for me. I'm okay with that.
They have had ample opportunity to crawl all of my posts over the years, archive them as they see fit, and repost them later as long as I get acknowledged as the OP. They have backups. Many others have used publicly available tools to crawl the site and index user content. It is safe to say that nothing that I have ever posted has disappeared. It is available in someone's archive somewhere. I'm okay with that because I can't change that now.
When I post today, I monitor the thread activity and when it dies I edit my post unless it fits the criteria that I honor - the post references a situation where someone needed information about a common issue with a vehicle or other product that I have a lot of experience with. For example if someone just bought a 15 year old vehicle and suddenly they encounter an issue that is well-known to everyone else who has ever owned that model then I post a clear answer with photos if needed to help them solve the problem. People like this tend to be unable to afford newer vehicles and problems like this can be expensive to fix if they go to a shop when they are really simple to fix with ordinary tools. I give a description of the process to repair it so they can get on their way and not have their "new-to-me" car break down and cost them a job. Most of my posts are reposts of content posted several times over the years such that I just grab the text from my local folder and the associated photos and let if fly again.
This is necessary on reddit because their search function is intentionally broken so that old useful posts can be hard to find. This encourages people to make new posts solving old problems and drives traffic to reddit. It's a dick move on reddit's part but I accepted that years ago.
The absence of permalinks on many subs also fuels this repost bullshit. Few subs have permalinks to popular questions or FAQs on the sub, therefore you see a lot of repetition in subject matter of the posts. Reddit subs are less of an information site than they are an activity site. Reddit needs a certain amount of traffic on a sub for it to be a useful place to post so search is crippled, permalinks are largely absent, etc.
The content I post on reddit is mine. I will do with it as I please. If you wanna see everything I have ever posted in its original form you need to use one of those crawler tools before I edit.